


A Step (or Two) in the Right Direction

by mizface



Category: due South
Genre: F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-16
Updated: 2014-12-16
Packaged: 2018-03-01 16:59:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,779
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2780804
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mizface/pseuds/mizface
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Fraser, Ray, Ray and Stella. Four people connected by well, a lot of things. Tonight, a phone call can be added to that list.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Step (or Two) in the Right Direction

**Author's Note:**

  * For [spuffyduds](https://archiveofourown.org/users/spuffyduds/gifts).



> I must send major thanks to my beta, who among other things made sure Dief made at least a mentioned appearance. Any mistakes left after their expert help are all mine. Bonus thanks to mods who not only approve works, but spot-check for grammar!
> 
> Spuffyduds, I know you asked for a bit more... adult, but I hope the inclusion of both your requested pairings makes up for the lack of a mature rating.

“Yeah, I know, I know,” Ray was saying when Fraser came into the apartment. “Hey, no need to bring out the big guns. Nothing’s changed, promise.” 

Fraser found Ray in the kitchen, stirring a pot, phone propped on his shoulder, the sling holding Ray’s left arm helping to keep it in place. Fraser put down the bag of groceries, trying to surreptitiously check on Ray’s status as he did. He knew he was unsuccessful when Ray turned and rolled his eyes as he spoke. “Yes, Frannie, I’ll tell him. _And_ give him a hug.” His eyes widened and he snorted. “Not from you, I won’t. That’s my turf now, got it?” Ray grinned and shook his head. “Okay, hey, don’t overdo it, you hear me? Right. No, this is not a pot calling a kettle anything. Totally different scenarios, thank you very kindly. Okay. _Okay_ , jeez. Talk to you soon. Bye.”

“How’s Francesca?” Fraser asked as he put away groceries.

“Fine. Big as a freaking house – her words, not mine – and her back aches and she’s tired. But totally loving being pregnant, apparently.” He gave Fraser a quick, one-armed hug. “That’s from her.” He leaned in for a long, deep kiss. “That’s from me.”

Fraser raised an eyebrow. “I’m glad for the clarification.”

“Hey, she wanted me to add a grab on the ass, but I drew the line.”

“I appreciate that.”

“Yeah? You can show me later.” He winked, then waved his good arm toward the hall. “Take your coat off, stay awhile.”

“I think I will. Something smells delicious.”

“It should – I thawed out some of that soup you made awhile back.” He lifted his elbow to give the sling a little waggle. “No heavy lifting involved, promise. I didn’t even try to make biscuits to go with. Not that they would have been that hard.”

“I respectfully disagree,” Fraser replied. “I’ve seen some of the results of your forays into cooking. From the look of the kitchen afterward, this may be a more dangerous place for you than on the streets chasing criminals.”

“Hardy ha ha.” Ray swatted at him with his good hand; Fraser easily avoided it, catching Ray’s wrist and pulling him in for a kiss. 

When they parted, both men were flushed. Fraser couldn’t resist the urge to kiss the tip of Ray’s nose, smiling when he wrinkled it. “I’m not sure about biscuits,” Fraser told him, “but I believe we have everything we need for cornbread. It wouldn’t take any time.”

Ray leaned in for another kiss. “Sounds good. _After_ you hang up your coat.” At Fraser’s look, he added, “Hey, don’t think you’re domesticating me or anything. I just don’t want to hear you bitch if you get flour on it.”

Fraser went to the coat closet, choosing retreat rather than protest. In no small part, he admitted to himself, because Ray was right.

“Where’s Diefenbaker?” he wondered as he closed the closet door.

“Sulking in the bedroom.” Ray said. Fraser could hear Ray’s eyeroll. “The squirrels laughed at him when we went to the park earlier.”

“Really.”

“Feel free to ask him if you’re feeling the lack of drama in your life. All I know is, one minute we were walking along, sharing a pretzel – don’t start – and the next he turned around and started slinking home.”

Fraser sighed as he started gather ingredients for the cornbread. “I’ll speak with him later, if he doesn’t come out on his own.”

############

Dinner finished and Diefenbaker placated (with a piece of cornbread, despite Fraser’s better judgment), Ray stood to clear the dishes. Fraser frowned but didn’t stop him, settling for saying, “Just set them on the counter. I’ll wash them in a minute.”

“You gonna let me dry?” Fraser gave him a dubious look, and Ray half-glared. “One dish, one time and it was the day _after_ I got this stupid thing,” Ray said, gesturing at the sling.

“How about you start some water for tea while I clean up?”

“Fine,” Ray huffed. “But I’m capable of helping.”

“If only this were your attitude when you had two working hands,” Fraser sighed, ducking to avoid the balled-up napkin Ray tossed.

“Sorry, missed the can,” Ray told him, wide and completely insincere smile on his face.

Dished cleared and kitchen clean, they settled on the couch, Fraser with the day’s paper in hand and his tea safely on the side table. Ray was playing with the remote, but had yet to turn on the television. “So, Frannie gave me some news when she called,” Ray said all-too casually.

“About the baby?”

“Nah, everything’s still hush-hush on that front. If she knows what it is she’s not telling.” He tossed the remote onto the coffee table and took a deep breath. “It’s about Thanksgiving. Vecchio’s gonna be there, and so’s Stella.”

That was a surprise. Mostly a good one, but given Ray’s reticence in telling him, Fraser wasn’t sure how to answer. “Ah,” he finally said, to fill the silence before it got awkward.

It didn’t help. “That’s it? Just ‘ah’? You haven’t seen Vecchio in months, I thought you’d be excited.”

“It will definitely be good to see Ray again. I’m surprised they’re coming, though. I thought they’d decided to wait until Frannie’s delivered, so they could see the baby.”

“Yeah, well, Stell’s got a case coming to a head then, so they upped the timetable.”

Fraser just nodded; Ray leaned in, getting in Fraser’s face. “You’re not doing it again, are you?”

Fraser’s face was pure innocence when he answered. “Doing what, Ray?”

Ray shook his head and sank back into the couch. “That’s what I thought. You need to stop thinking the worst of Stella.”

“I don’t think the worst of her.”

Ray humphed. “You say that, but that doesn’t make it true. I’ve told you you don’t need to keep being mad at Stella on my account. She and I are fine. Everything’s water under the bridge.”

“I wouldn’t say I’m mad at her, per se.” Ray looked disbelievingly at Fraser. “I don’t have to like her, do I?”

“No,” Ray grudgingly replied. “You just have to be civil to her, which I know, I know, you always are, because you’re a Canadian _and_ a Mountie and you’d combust or lose your citizenship or something if you were rude.” He held up a hand before Fraser could reply. “Just… it’d be nice if you’d try to thaw a little around her, if not for my sake then for Vecchio’s. That’s all.”

Fraser sighed deeply. “I know you’re right. I just find it hard to get beyond her past behavior.”

“Hey, if she hadn’t divorced me, you and me wouldn’t be together.”

“True.” Fraser put his hand on Ray’s knees and gave it a gentle squeeze. “But the way she treated you while you were undercover was terrible.”

Ray shrugged. “I was kind of asking for it. You met her when I was pretending not to be a stalker, remember?”

“That doesn’t excuse her later behavior. Her treatment of you at the station whenever she came by was – well, I had a hard time holding my tongue. You were being a professional. She could have at least afforded you the same courtesy.”

Ray started laughing, eyes twinkling. “Oh man, it’d almost be worth it to have you tell her that to her face. _I_ was more professional than her.”

“It’s true,” Fraser protested, but Ray’s laughter was infectious, and he couldn’t help but chuckle. “I’m more than willing to tell her if you’d like.”

“I will seriously consider that. But not at Thanksgiving, okay? I wouldn’t want to spoil it for Ma.”

“Nor would I. She’s very kind to ask us to join them.”

“Yep. She’s an amazing woman, that Ma Vecchio. So we’ll go, they’ll go, everybody will be on their best behavior. And hey, it could be worse – we could all be there for Christmas instead of Turkey Day.”

“How would that make it worse?”

“It’d give Vecchio more reasons to give me the stink eye. If he wasn’t glaring at me because the tie I’d give him wasn’t ugly enough, it’d be because I still remember what Stella likes well enough to get her a great gift.”

“You know, Ray, if I should be nicer to Stella, then perhaps you could afford the same courtesy to Ray.”

Ray made a face, then sighed, shoulders slumping a tiny bit. “Yeah, I guess that’s fair enough. But don’t expect too much. Vecchio and I communicate best through insults, you know that. And if he calls me Stanley? All bets are off.”

“Fair enough,” Fraser held out his hand, “We’ve reached an agreement, then?”

Ray leaned over to take his hand. “I’m thinking it’ll take more than a handshake to seal the deal,” he said, and yanked hard, pulling Fraser until he was half-sprawled on Ray. Fraser didn’t even spare a glance at the scattered newspaper on the floor, choosing instead to shift so that he was more firmly settled on top of Ray. Ray shifted too, spreading his legs so that Fraser fit snugly in the vee, raising his knees to cradle him. Fraser shot a glance at Ray’s arm.

“It’s fine, Fraser. Promise. Now quit being so careful and get with the program, huh?”

Fraser thought about protesting for a second, but a roll of Ray’s hips stopped him before he could utter a word. 

Ray had a point about better ways than handshakes.

#################

“You were on the phone with Frannie for awhile,” Ray said when Stella joined him in the kitchen. He held up a spoonful of sauce, blowing on it before he had her take a taste. She closed her eyes to concentrate, which was yet another reason he loved this woman; she didn’t just tell him it was fine – she took the time to really taste his cooking and think about it before giving her opinion. Actually, that was pretty much her M.O. no matter what, but in the kitchen (as well as a few other places) he genuinely appreciated it.

“Still needs a little something,” she finally said. “But no more garlic. It is not the answer to every cooking need.”

“I wasn’t even going to suggest it,” he told her, reaching for the oregano. And he wasn’t – they had enough on the garlic bread warming in the oven, after all. “So, phone call, Frannie.”

When Stella didn’t say anything, he stopped stirring the sauce, turning to look at her. “She’s not still trying to convince you pregnancy is the best thing since sliced bread, is she?”

“Thankfully, she seems to have let that go,” Stella said, opening a cabinet and getting out plates. “I think she’s finally at the stage where she’s uncomfortable enough that she’s stopped talking up the experience so much.” 

“Then what aren’t you telling me? And don’t try to push it off. I know you well enough to know when something’s up.”

Stella got out silverware before answering. She turned to face Ray as she answered. “Your mother invited Fraser and Ray to Thanksgiving dinner.”

Ray fought a grimace and eyeroll. “Seriously? You’d think she got enough of him before, when he was keeping up appearances. Why invite him now?”

“Maybe, she wants to show him how much she appreciated him keeping up those appearances. Or maybe she genuinely likes him. He’s not a bad guy, you know.”

“No, just a stupid one.” Before Stella could respond, he held up his hands. “I just mean for giving you up, that’s all.”

Stella didn’t look convinced, but let it go, moving to set the table. Ray turned down the heat on the sauce so it wouldn’t burn, then drained the pasta. “So it won’t bother you, him being there?” he asked when she came back into the kitchen. “With Fraser, I mean.”

“Not as much as it bothers you,” she replied.

“Hey, as long as he’s good to Benny, I got no beef with him.”

“Good thing you’re not on the stand right now,” Stella said, shaking her head. “Because I don’t think anyone would buy that, not if they’d ever seen the two of you together.”

Ray sighed. She was right; they both knew it. But it wasn’t that easy. “Do you blame me? The guy took my place for over a year. Yeah, it was for work, and I understand that, I do. But knowing it here,” he pointed to his temple, “and knowing it here,” he moved his hand to cover his heart, “are two different things, you know?”

Stella came over to give Ray a hug. “I do know, believe me. But your mother wants him – them – there. And to be honest, I’m glad she invited them. For both our sakes.” 

Ray wasn’t sure about that, not one bit. “How about you explain that while we eat? Food’s getting cold.”

It was a stalling tactic and they both knew it. But Stella didn’t argue, just moved in to brush a soft kiss on his cheek. Ray caught her before she could move back and kissed her lips, just as softly.

“I’ll get us some wine,” she said.

############

Over dinner they ended up talking about everything except Thanksgiving, which was fine by Ray. Stella genuinely loved her work, and that passion made it easy to listen to her talk about her cases (what she could say without breaking a confidence, of course). He might be taking a very extended, possibly permanent break from police work, but that didn’t mean he’d lost interest.

She in turn seemed to enjoy his stories about the bowling alley and all its craziness. Between the eclectic staff, oddball regulars, and folks who just wandered in, he always had plenty of amusing stories.

But Ray knew the subject hadn’t been dropped. The fact was confirmed when they were cleaning up the dishes, Stella putting away the clean stuff, Ray parceling out the leftovers into easy-to-reheat lunch containers for the both of them.

“I get that Ray being at your family’s for Thanksgiving isn’t your first choice,” Stella began. “And while I’ve never gone undercover, between the two of you I’ve seen the aftermath enough to know a little about it.”

Ray waited to see where she was going.

“What if you just focus on Fraser?” she wondered. “Let him be your distraction if you have to, keep you from thinking about your time away.”

“And let Stanley distract you?”

“That’s not what I meant.” Stella shot back with a glare, and Ray was pretty sure he’d gone too far. 

“Sorry, that was out of line,” he said, walking toward her with open arms.

She watched him for a moment before moving into the loose embrace, his hands on her hips. Her glare softened to something sad and wistful. “Ray was my friend – my best friend – for years, even before we were a couple. I’ve missed him. For a long time I didn’t think we’d ever have a chance to be friends again.” Stella slid her hands down Ray’s arms, finding his hands and lacing their fingers together. “Shared history is a powerful thing, especially as far back as Ray and I go. Can you blame me for wanting it back?”

Ray gave her a long look. “You sure that’s all it is? I mean, if it’s so powerful, and you still love the guy…” 

“Raymond Vecchio, you should know better than that by now. Yes, I’m sure. Friends is all it is. It’s all either of us want.” Stella reached up to cradle Ray’s face in her hands. “The past is great, but remember, I married _you_. Because as nice as it will be to reminisce with Ray, I’m more interested in the future you and I have than the past he and I shared.”

Ray turned his face to kiss her palm. “You make a pretty convincing argument,” he said, a smile starting to form.

“I’d better, or I should start looking for another job. So, we’re good?”

Ray pulled her to him for a long, deep kiss, hands moving lower until they rested nicely on her very shapely backside. “We’re good. But if you wanted to try any other forms of persuasion, I wouldn’t say no,” he told her as he kissed his way to the junction of neck and shoulder. “Might even have a counter-argument or two of my own you’d like.”

She arched into him, rolling her hips just so, and Ray lost whatever bad innuendo he’d been about to make.

Even without speaking, Stella knew how to get the last word. And that was perfectly okay by him.


End file.
